Speaking of gender stereotypes:

Gender-bending in the virtual world: Will Wright, creator of the best-selling computer game The Sims, has used data collected from the simulated world to shed some light on how men and women interact.

Wright told an audience at PC Forum that recent data indicated female players were far more likely to pose as men than male players were to pose as women. This, he said, was the direct opposite of the trend in the role-playing game EverQuest, in which male players often consider it advantageous to pose as women.

The Sims data also showed that male characters were more likely to be officially ignored than females, meaning that other characters opt not to interact with them.

However, female characters were more likely to be banned by other players, which is essentially the virtual equivalent of being subject to a restraining order.

"We found 80 percent of the players who were ignored were male," Wright said. "And 75 percent of the players who were banned were female."

Wright attributed the high incidence of banned females to the desire among male players to distance themselves from their virtual ex-girlfriends.